Warsaw to host new European Space Agency security centre

The Polish capital of Warsaw has been chosen as the location for a new European Space Agency security centre, as Poland takes another step in its ambitions to become a bigger player in the space sector.

“This is a very important day for Warsaw, for Poland, and for Polish ambitions,” declared Prime Minister Donald Tusk alongside ESA director general Josef Aschbacher.

“This space centre confirms Poland’s growing role…related to cutting-edge technologies,” added Tusk at an announcement ceremony on the roof of Warsaw’s Copernicus Science Centre, named after the renowned Renaissance astronomer who was born in Poland.

Tusk noted that Poland will become the first country on the eastern flank of the European Union to host an ESA centre. Aschbacher added that it would be the agency’s first facility established outside the original 11 countries that founded the ESA in 1975. Poland only joined in 2012.

One of the security centre’s areas of operation will be satellite communication, including the use of satellite imagery to monitor critical incidents such as natural disasters, said Tusk.

“It will also greatly facilitate monitoring the situation at the border,” he added. Poland and other countries on NATO and the EU’s eastern flank have faced a number of security threats along their borders with Russia and Belarus, including airspace incursions and the instrumentalisation of migration.

Tusk said that the new centre would also lead research into “dual use” technologies that serve both civilian and military purposes. Aschbacher noted that Poland is “a leader in security investments”, including in the defence and space industries, which are closely linked to one another. 

During his remarks, Tusk also revealed that Poland and the ESA are working on the first Polish spacecraft, which would provide servicing, refuelling and other services for satellites.

“If we are truly serious about Polish sovereignty, if we are truly serious about European sovereignty, Europe cannot lag behind the United States, and especially China, when it comes to space exploration capabilities,” declared the Polish prime minister.

Speaking alongside him, finance minister Andrzej Domański stressed that the government also sees the space sector as “another driving force for the Polish economy in the coming decades”.

“Every euro invested in this industry returns six-fold, even seven-fold, so it is simply a sound investment in the Polish economy,” declared Domański.

Last November, the ESA signed a memorandum of understanding with Poland to develop the new security centre. Subsequently, various Polish cities – Gdańsk, Poznań, Katowice, Wrocław, Kraków and Łódź, as well as Warsaw – expressed an interest in hosting the facility.

Domański said today that, although Warsaw had ultimately been chosen, “we will create a network that will integrate and develop the space industry infrastructure in Polish cities”.

Entities belonging to the state Polish Development Fund (PFR), including the National Development Bank (BGK), would also soon establish a special fund with up to half a billion zloty (€116 million) allocated for investment in companies involved in the space sector, added Domański.

Poland has placed great emphasis on developing its space industry in recent years, with the aim of becoming a major European player in the sector.

Last year, the country launched its first national military satellite. A Polish firm, Creotech Instruments, signed Poland’s largest ever contract with the ESA, a €52 million deal to build and launch a constellation of Earth observation satellites.

Meanwhile, 2025 also saw astronaut Sławosz Uznański-Wiśniewski become the second-ever Pole to travel into space, as part of an ESA mission to the International Space Station.

Aschbacher today paid tribute to Uznański-Wiśniewski, saying that he “is a source of inspiration for many Poles and for many companies investing in the space industry”.

Daniel Tilles

Daniel Tilles is editor-in-chief of Notes from Poland. He has written on Polish affairs for a wide range of publications, including Foreign Policy, POLITICO Europe, EUobserver and Dziennik Gazeta Prawna.